State of the Housing System report makes for sobering reading

Only the ACT and Western Australia are estimated to deliver their share of the Housing Accord target on time. Victoria is expected to follow six months later, Queensland by September 2030 and NSW by June 2031.

There are still grounds for optimism. Most jurisdictions are expected to build more homes during the Accord period than in the preceding five years.

The State of the Housing System report estimates NSW will deliver 258,000 homes during the Housing Accord period. However, this is only 7,000 more than the 251,000 delivered over the previous five years.

That is well short of NSW’s 376,000-home target. The projected gap of 118,000 homes is almost as large as Western Australia’s entire target of 129,000.

Many commitments in NSW’s Housing Accord implementation schedule have already passed. Planning reforms take time to flow through rezonings, approvals and construction before appearing as completed homes.

Hopefully, NSW is now approaching the point where those reforms begin to make themselves felt.

NSW has the largest task and the opportunity to show that planning reform can deliver both speed and scale.